


Always, Your Highness

by purplecanonqueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Fluff and Angst, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), klangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-05-23 04:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14927423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplecanonqueen/pseuds/purplecanonqueen
Summary: “Lance.”“Pardon?”“It's Lance, not Your Highness.”“Whatever you say, Your Highness.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> fun drinking game: take a shot every time keith says, 'Your Highness'.
> 
>  
> 
> actually, do not do that.
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry for all the spelling errors, this is undedited and I'm a chaotic bi.

Lance was an idiot. 

The prince of the winter court was currently on his knees in the backyard of the massive castle, ignoring the sun that hit his lean back and probably made him sweat. 

Keith quietly had to rethink his life choices as he stood in the shade of a big tree, his eyes following the movements of the brown haired fae while he was trying to provoke the poor cats that had found their way onto the property of the royalty and with that near the prince. The prince, who was supposed to try on fitting clothing for the next day instead of doing.. that. 

“La-- Your Highness,” Keith said quietly, and then turned his face up to glare at the bright sun when Lance only made a hand gesture that was supposed to mean 'yeah, yeah'. In the past ten years, Keith had gotten enough time to learn what the prince meant when he was doing things like waving around his hand instead of moving his mouth. Which he also loved to do. “The queen will be upset if she finds out that you didn't listen to her. Again.” 

The last time that had happened, the prince had somehow ended up in the big fountain located about twenty feet away from where they were standing. But that was a story for another time. 

“Oh, calm down,” Lance said from the ground and with almost his entire upper body in the bushes the two cats had run into earlier. “She's not actually gonna be upset with me, even less so when she doesn't find out about this.” 

Keith's eyes locked onto the green bushes, on a spot where he thought Lance's head was, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other one. “As your bodyguard, I can't keep this out of my report and lie to the queen, Your Highness.” 

There was a hissing sound and then Lance's upper body became visible when he pulled himself out of the bushes. He turned around to look at Keith with his blue eyes that strangely reminded the bodyguard of the sky when it was empty of clouds. “C'mon Keith, I told you to just call me by my name.” Indeed he had. About every time they talked for more than two seconds. He stood up slowly, apparently had given up on the cats and tried to slap away the dirt on his trousers. “And it wouldn't be lying, just not telling her about one thing.” 

“Which wouldn't be much better, really.” 

“Still better than lying to the queen, right?” Lance put his hands on his hip. “By the way, I'm not gonna give up on that whole calling-me-by-my-name-instead-of-your-highness thing.”

Keith fell in step next to him after he started walking with those long legs of his and let his eyes run over the garden. “I'd really appreciate if you would, Your Highness.” 

The prince rubbed the top of his pointy ear when Keith held open the door and then looked at the garden again, and then chuckled. “I don't remember you being that rude when we were kids. You used to do that thing that people do when they're happy. Y'know, when the corners of their lips curl up?” 

“I do know what smiling is, but thank you for the description.” Keith nodded at one of the butlers when he passed them in the hallway, never having seen him before. Which wasn't unlikely, if you'd take the size of the castle in account and the fact that he was always at the side of the prince. 

His looked at the prince as he pouted and went on about Keith being mean. Looked at his beautiful skin that Lance complained about at least twice every week. Looked at his, in Keith's eyes, perfect nose; at his slightly pointy chin, brown eyebrows and long black lashes. It was ironic, really, that a fae as beautiful and warm as Lance was the prince of the winder court. The court that was cruel and full of evil people, at least in the eyes of humans. 

When he managed to snap out of his thoughts again, they had reached the talented fae's room who managed almost Lance's whole closet. Keith knocked twice, and then opened the door for the prince before entering after him. 

Vivica, a old fae with grey hairs that she always styled in a bun and small wrinkles on her face, looked up. A smile nearly blinded them when her dark eyes landed on Lance. “There you are, Your Majesty! Oh my, with every day you get more handsome!” 

“Please, you're making me blush.” Lance shot Keith a look before walking over to a big table in the middle of the room. He picked up the light blue shirt and dark pants that lay there, holding them up. “I love those colors, Vivi! And don't think I didn't feel you rolling your eyes, buddy.” 

Keith chose not to answer when Vivica smiled again and went into explaining how the blue would bring out the princes eyes and as much as he would hate to admit this out loud, Keith agreed. Lance's eyes were beautiful and he's definitely look amazing in blue. 

And as much as Keith enjoyed Vivica's company – she was really something else with her gentle smiles and words, like the grand mother he never had –, he was glad when they left her and made their way toward the prince's private rooms. 

Apparently, the name calling bugged Lance more today than in the last years because he started again when they were walking up the stairs and passing more butlers on their way to do their jobs. “I still don't get why you insist on calling me 'Your Highness'.” 

“Because,” Keith said, in a quieter tone than the prince, “it's polite and as your bodyguard it's expected from me.” And then he added the, “Your Highness”, because it was kind of amusing to see the other get worked up over it. 

“Isn't it rude to continue calling me that when I tell you that I don't like it?” Lance pushed one hand through his hair, unintentionally pushing a few strands behind his ears as he did. “Does your brother do that, too? That whole being overly polite thing?” 

“I imagine that Shiro is as polite as expected from him when he is around Princess Allura,” Keith said and gently put one of his hands on Lance's back when he stopped walking, immediately letting it fall back to his side when the prince began moving again. “Though, I am sure you can ask him and the princess tomorrow, Your Highness.” 

“Wait, Allura is coming tomorrow? How come you didn't mention this? You're a bad friend, Keith.”

“I assumed you'd know, seeing as all four courts will be gathered,” Keith said. “And you never asked.” 

“Don't sass me, buddy,” the prince half whined while throwing his head back to look at the high ceiling. “Can you feel the disappointment coming out of my pores? Because that's what you get for being a bad friend.” 

It was extremely hard for Keith to stay professional sometimes, but he remembered that he had to. It was expected from him, it was what was right. “I don't recall us being friends, Your Highness.” 

Lance stuck out his bottom lip in a pout as they stopped in front of his room and Keith concentrated on not looking at it. Instead, he focused on the blue eyes of the prince – which cost a lot of nerves, too; getting lost in them was becoming alarmingly easy these days. “You're so _rude_ , Keith.” 

Keith pushed open the prince's bedroom door and ignored the urge to smile at the said fae. “If it came off as being rude, I apologise dearly.” He lifted one of his arms, pointed inside the room and turned his head to look at the young prince again. “You should probably get ready for bed soon, tomorrow will be a big day for the royals, Your Highness.” 

“Aw.” Lance's pout got bigger. “You sure you don't want to come in and spend some quality time with me?” 

“I am sure that spending quality time with the prince is not part of my job,” Keith said and got out of the way as the taller male passed him. He looked down the hallway, let his eyes wander to the windows. The sun was beginning to set, and while it was a little early for sleep, Keith had known the prince long enough to know that he did need a certain amount of shut-eye to make it through the big gathering the next day. 

“What if someone tries to kill me in my sleep?”

“That would not be possible, seeing as this someone would have to pass me first.” 

“What about the windows?”

Keith raised his eyebrows. They had this conversation every day before Lance went to bed, it had become part of their daily schedule, as it seemed. Not that Keith minded. “There are guards outside; near all the windows and outside of the gate. You're safe inside your room, Your Highness.” 

“Lance.” 

“Pardon?” 

“It's _Lance_ , not _Your Highness_.” 

“Whatever you say, Your Highness.” 

Lance sighed deeply and then slammed his door shut, opening it after a few seconds again to stick his head out. “But in all seriousness, one day you will call me by name again. And if it's the last thing I'll ever hear, at least I'm going to go with a smile on my face.”

“Please do not say things like that.” Keith frowned and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. He started counting in his head, wanting to know how long it'd take the prince to really go to sleep. The day before, it had been short thirty seconds. 

“Eh, it's not like I'm gonna die anytime soon,” Lance muttered with his lips pursed and then yawned, putting one of his hands in front of his open mouth. “I'm kinda tired, g'night.”

“Good night, Your Highness,” Keith replied quietly and the door closed again one second later. Ten seconds, impressive. 

 

 

Keith was walking to the throne room -- which was where they would go through the portal to the summer court -- with Lance the next day, listening to the prince's enthusiastic story about his dream. Apparently, he had transformed into a cat. 

He nodded and threw in a comment when it was needed. Being the prince's bodyguard was hard, especially after growing up with him. Young Keith hadn't realised that there was that big of a difference between himself and Lance. His dream as a kid had always been to stay at Lance's side forever and protect him from all evil, and a part of his dream was his life now. But the other part of that dream was impossible and would never be reality. He knew that, and he had to remember it. 

“Mother!” Keith snapped out of his thoughts and realised that they had arrived in the throne room. The prince and queen were hugging each other. From where he had stood now, he could see the smile on Lance's face. 

“Good morning, darling,” the queen replied softly and stepped back, her blue eyes finding Keith's violet ones over her son's shoulder. “And good morning to you too, Keith.” 

“Your Majesty,” Keith said, lowering his upper body in a quick bow. 

The queen's lips turned up in a smile. She started walking toward him and nodded at one of her guards that stood near the door. When she stopped in front of him, the smell of snow and rain surrounded him – and it intensified as she put her hand on his dark hair. Something she'd always done, ever since he was a little boy. “I would inform you that calling me that is absolutely not necessary, but knowing you and your mother, that wouldn't change a thing.” 

Keith had no idea what to say to that. People always told him he came more after his mother than his father, appearance and personality wise. Not that that changed anything. He loved both of his parents dearly. 

“Your Majesty,” the guard near the door said and quickly bowed. “The portal can now be opened.”

The queen looked at Keith and Lance again, and Keith mentally kicked himself for not noticing that the prince had also walked over. Her blue eyes ran over both of them, as if she was storing the image of how they looked into a corner in her brain. As soon as her eyes left them, she walked over to the wall next to the door and put her long fingered hands against it. Closing her eyes, she turned her face towards the ground. 

A few seconds later, a blue shimmer surrounded her frame. Starting by the the top of her head covered by hair that had the same color as Lance's, going over the light blue dress she was wearing and ending at the ground she was standing on. 

The magic in the air had Keith holding his breath. He always did when a royal used their magic. He was sure that the same magic the queen was using was currently coming out Lance, the slight shivers on his left arm told him that much. 

Keith's eyes were glued to the wall, where a big blue circle manifested, being called by the queen's strong magic. It started out as a small portal, growing in size until it was almost eight feet tall. It was blue, as was every portal that was created by the royal family of the winter court, and looked as beautiful as snow did when it fell from heaven. 

The queen stepped back and Lance put his hands on her shoulders to steady her for a moment. “We're good to go.” 

Five guards, who had been standing near the big windows in the other wall, walked over with quick steps and disappeared through the portal. It glowed in a bright blue for two seconds, which was how Keith knew they had arrived at the other court without a problem. 

Next, the queen stepped forward with two guards on each of her side. Again, the portal gave a soft and bright glow and Keith let out a relieved breath he didn't know he was holding. 

He put his right hand on Lance's left shoulder, watched the dark glove of his equally dark suit sitting on top of Lance's blue shirt before looking up at the prince, noticing his furrowed brows. “Is everything alright?”

The prince blinked a few times before looking at Keith, his facial expression turning back to normal when their gazes collided. “Wh—Yeah, everything is absolutely fine!” 

Keith knew that Lance was lying but he didn't want to ask for the reason. If the prince wanted to keep something from him, he had every right to. Keith was his bodyguard, it wasn't needed for him to know something that didn't necessarily have to do with him. Even if it concerned him. 

“Then let's go,” he said and together they stepped forward and through the glowing portal.


	2. Chapter 02

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is kinda all over the place, sORRY. 
> 
>  
> 
> still unedited, because I'm still a chaotic bi; whoops.

Entering the Summer Court felt like stepping through the gates of heaven.

A warm breeze ruffled Keith's dark hair, the smell of roses almost made him close his eyes to take a deep breath. He took in the field they were standing on, covered with grass and flowers who were surrounded by bumblebees. The big trees were casting a shadow over the summer fae; they were almost all huddled together, it looked to Keith like they enjoyed being out of the warm sun for a few minutes.

After taking in their surroundings, Keith's eyes went to Lance – they always did, as if drawn to him. Similar with how a moth was drawn to a flame. Lance's dark hair was a bit messy, probably because of the slight wind, his blue eyes practically sparkling as he looked around.

Keith had always known that Lance was beautiful, and just how beautiful he was, but in moments like those, when he wasn't necessarily aware someone was watching him, he let down his walls and it was as like looking at the light that broke apart the dark. And Keith knew, he knew, he had to look away before the prince caught that look. It was bad enough that his brother had caught him multiple times.

“Allura!” Lance called out and raised his hand to wave at the princess standing in the of the sun. He started walking towards her, nodding at the queen – who had found King Alfor and Governor General Coran – and waving at Keith to follow him. “She looks amazing, doesn't she?”

Keith took a quick second to look at the princess of the summer court. With long, thick white hair, dark skin and incredible blue eyes with purple pupils. On her cheekbones were two sickle-shaped marks in pink color – a mark that every fae with old and powerful blood had. She was one of the most gorgeous fae he had ever laid eyes on. Her hair was up in a difficult looking bun, the gold circlet she was wearing shined in the sun.

The princess was never one of those storybook princesses the humans often wrote about. Instead of wearing dresses, she preferred to wear her own, custom made, armor and she liked to kick some ass when it was needed – and she was very much able to do so. 

“Hello Lance,” Allura said, her accent making his name sound like Lonce, when they were close enough and smiled. Her bright eyes went over Lance's appearance and then quickly over Keith. He tried to ignore his brother, who stood behind the princes and was giving him a look. “You both look really nice, I'm so glad you could make it.” 

“Thank you, but so do you, princess.” Lance winked and then proceeded to give Keith a look too, though it was a lot more different than the one Shiro had given him. “Keith always looks like that.”

Keith wasn't sure if he meant that he always looked nice (he thought it was a reach on his end), or if he just insulted him. He chose not to think too much about it at the moment, said a polite 'Thank you, Your Highness', and left his spot next to Lance.

“Keith; it's good to see you again.” His brother smiled at him, a dimple becoming visible on his left cheek. 

Shiro looked tired, Keith realized, as he looked at him from up close. There were dark bags visible under his grey, almond shaped eyes that he couldn't remember from the last time they had met. But it wasn't the only thing that stood out to the younger fae, he noticed the way Shiro's shoulders were dropped lower than usual and how his pointy ears reflected that, too.

“Are you okay?” 

“Everything's fine,” Shiro said and the way his eyebrows shot up and his eyes got bigger showed that he was genuinely surprised by the question. “Why? Do I look like something's wrong?” 

“No. I was—I was just asking,” Keith mumbled and concentrated on keeping his facial expression neutral. He could hear Lance talking to the princess' pet mice and turned his head to see the prince holding two of them in his hands. When he turned back to his brother, he thought of something to change the topic. He knew his brother wouldn’t stop bugging him until Keith told him he was looking like a literal old man. “Was everything running smoothly over here?” 

Shiro blinked. “Yes; King Alfor and Princess Allura managed all of the royal tasks without a problem. Coran helped them a lot, too – I think I heard him going on about how lost the whole royal Court would be without him.” 

“Is that so?” Keith snorted, remembering how proud Coran could be (as the Governor General, it was kind of normal). He let his purple eyes gaze over the rest of the Summer Court and his lips curled up into a small smile when he noticed one person missing. “Hey, where did you leave Slav?” 

His brothers annoyed groan was like music to his ears. 

 

The sun had already began to set as the Autumn and Spring Courts joined them, arriving in a wave of giggles and sparkles everywhere. Seeing as spring and autumn were really similar, the courts were as well and it wasn’t much of a surprise when those two became basically sisters. Humans would argue and say this wasn’t true. They would probably also go as far as saying that Winter and Summer weren’t even related, Keith thought, as he stood near the table at which the members of the royal families were sitting and enjoying their meals. 

When he glanced up from Lance’s brown locks, he accidentally locked eyes with Matthew Holt – who was basically the personification of a chaotic mess. Keith remembered, as Matt started to make his way towards him, how he dragged not only himself but also Lance into the home of a goblin (goblins were usually grumpy, but nice creatures. How Matt managed to get on their bad side was a mystery to Keith, and not one that he liked to solve anytime soon) and they nearly got turned into their food. 

“Keith, hey!” Matt greeted him cheerily, raising one of his hands for a small wave before letting it fall back to his side. “I didn’t know that you’d be here, too!” 

Keith frowned slightly at that. “You know that I’m the prince’s bodyguard; where else would I be?”

“Having fun for once in your life?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Matt said, scratching the back of his head and turning his already messy head into a even bigger mess. “Listen, I’m really glad you’re here actually, because—you see—I have this little problem with this beautiful pixie and was wondering if—”

“No.” 

“—but you didn’t even hear all of it!” 

Keith huffed out a breath and crossed his arms, glancing over Matt’s shoulder for a second. The royals were finished with their food, as it seemed, and were slowly twirling around on the grass to music that wasn’t there for Keith. He let his eyes run over all of the unfamiliar faces, blinking when he caught sight of Lance spinning around barefoot with a laughing Allura. 

“I don’t need to hear all of it,” he finally said to Matt, turning around. 

“Where the hell are you going?” 

“None of your business,” Keith answered sternly, but looked over his shoulder to send a smile in Matt’s direction to take the seriousness off his words. He took a deep breath when he couldn’t sense Matt’s presence around anymore and stopped walking. Looking up, he was able to identify a few stars across the darkening sky. 

He lowered himself to a sitting position on the soft grass, remembering how his father showed him a lot of the things he now knew when he was a lot younger. Keith let himself fall to the ground, his back hitting soft, slightly cold grass and embracing him like a hug of mother nature herself. 

Keith didn’t exactly know how long he was lying there, just looking at the stars and remembering moments from so long ago, when he noticed soft footsteps approaching. After knowing the prince for longer than ten years, it was unnecessary to turn his head to know it was him, but Keith still did. Because he enjoyed looking at Lance, even though he’d probably never admit that to anyone. Because he enjoyed looking at beautiful things. And Lance wasn’t only beautiful, the way the moonlight light up his features gave him a ethereal appearance, almost as if he wasn’t real. 

“Are you stargazing again?” The prince quietly sat down next to him, his weirdly intoxicating scent of ocean water and something spicy hitting Keith like a frying pan in the face and making him finally turn his head away again. “Show me something.” 

That was something, Keith knew Lance remembered, they had done a lot when they were still young and had no idea of how brutal the real world could really be. Of how different the two were, even though they said as long as they both had hearts that were beating in the same rhythm, they were the same. They had escaped from their mentors a lot, which was Shiro for Keith and someone else for Lance, to go outside in the middle of the night or as soon as it was dark and Keith had shown the young prince a variety of star signs in the dark sky. 

Lance lay down next to Keith, close but still far enough that their bodies didn’t touch – and it was hard for Keith to ignore the warmth coming of Lance’s body (he was again reminded of the irony that Lance belonged to the winter court). Above them, the sky was dark, with thousands of stars shimmering like diamonds did when the light hit them. 

“That’s Venus,” Keith said and raised his arm to point at said star. “It’s always easy to find, with it being the brightest object after the moon in the sky.” 

He didn’t mention that Venus was named after the goddess of love and beauty, but he was sure that Lance knew it already. 

Lance made a small noise next to him and Keith moved his hand across the sky, using his index index finger as a pointer. 

“These three stars here in a row are Orion’s Belt. They’re, too, very easy to find and you can actually use them to locate other constellations and stars.” He moved his finger down a bit, continued, “this here is Orion’s Sword. The one in the middle is Orion Nebula.” 

“I think I remember you telling me stuff about Nebulas when we were younger.” 

“Yeah?” Keith’s heart jumped in his chest as he shifted his eyes from the sky and the star he was pointing at to Lance, who was still looking upwards. 

“Yeah,” Lance said quietly. “Aren’t Nebulas how stars are born?” Before Keith could answer or hide his little smile, he went on. “I also remember you telling me that stars actually shine for a few billion years and then eventually die.” 

Keith looked back at the dark sky, willing his heart to calm down. “I remember that too, Your Highness.” With his finger, he made the shape of a square. “Do you perhaps remember what those four stars are called?” 

“Um.. Rigel, Bellatrix, Saiph and Betelgeuse?“ 

“I’m impressed,” Keith said, smiling at the night sky and trying to ignore the heat that warmed his cheeks. He was glad that it was nearly impossible for Lance to see him blushing right now. “The last one you named, Betelgeuse, is one of the largest, most luminous stars in the sky. It’s a red supergiant, actually; probably about six times bigger than the sun.”

“Woah.”

“And it will die soon,” Keith continued, pausing for a second to push a strand of dark hair out of his face. “It will explode in a supernova. And when it does, everyone on Earth will be able to see it. It will be like the Earth had two suns.” 

Lance rolled into his side, apparently not caring one bit about the expensive clothes and grass stains he’d have in them from doing so one bit. He looked at Keith, his blue eyes illuminating the stars twinkling up in the sky. “And when you say soon, it could be tomorrow or in a million years, right?” 

Keith had to swallow before he could talk again, his hand still raised and pointing above them. “That is correct.” 

“I probably shouldn’t hold my breath, then.”

As Keith was about to agree that Lance definitely shouldn’t hold his breath and wait for that to happen, even thought it could be possible for him to do so without a problem, the earth under them shuddered. A loud noise, that sounded strangely like a clap of thunder, came from behind them. From where everyone else was. 

And then the screams began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, that happened. uwu.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :)

Something was horribly wrong.  
It was ironic that the thought even crossed Keith’s mind as he pushed through the small crowd of fae with his hand securely wrapped around Lance’s wrist. There was obviously something more than just wrong, fae didn’t just suddenly start screaming out of excitement or happiness.  
Pushing a slim woman to the side gently, Keith stood on his tiptoes to see what everyone was screaming and panicking about. And when he finally did, he wished he hadn’t.  
In the middle of the field, where tables were previously standing, was grass burned in the shape of a circle. A few flowers were still burning, the smoke so aggressive that it made Keith’s eyes tear up. The worst thing wasn’t the fire or the burned ground, though, it was the person responsible for it and standing in the middle of it with both hands raised. Even with a hood thrown over her head and hiding her face, Keith instantly recognized the figure standing there. 

It was Haggar, the wife of Alfor’s former friend Zarkon, and a very powerful Galra. The Galra were mysterious people, no one really knew what they really were, but everyone knew that they still, somehow, belonged to the fae and some small part in them undoubtedly was.  
Her purplish hands raised, Haggar turned around and Keith could see the corners of her sharp mouth turning up. A feeling of dread crept up inside of Keith as he watched some sort of dark portal open on the burned ground and Galra soldiers jumping through it.  
Taking a step backwards, Keith’s back bumped into Lance’s chest and he used himself to push the prince back, still holding onto his thin wrist with his gloved hand. He quickly scanned the crowd, searching for the other royals and his brother and a sigh left him when he found them a short distance away.  
“What is going on? Keith? Buddy?” 

Keith looked up at Lance for a second and then started to make hi sway towards the others, carefully letting his senses touch the ground around them to make sure they wouldn’t be stopped or attacked on their way. “We need to go to the queen immediately, Your Highness.”

He detected confusion in the prince’s voice. “To my mother? What is happening?”

“Just be quiet and trust me,” Keith said and added a ‘please’ when he realized how rude he sounded. He could hear Haggar screeching something with her raspy voice, but he couldn’t figure out what the hell it was, and as one of the Galra soldiers appeared out of nowhere, he pushed away the thought.  
Keith quickly let go of Lance’s wrist and bend down to take the knife his mother gave him out of the dark boot of his right foot. The handle of it glowed purple for one millisecond when Keith put his hand on it, then transformed into a thin, sword-like weapon and Keith was never more thankful to be a halfling and to be able to use it. He let his senses run into the ground and was glad that the only thing in their way was this one soldier.  
“Stay behind me,” he told Lance and then took a quick step forward, aiming for the soldiers arm and letting satisfaction curl the corners of his mouth up when the soldier was too slow to defend itself. His blade cut through the metal colored vest it was wearing, leaving a mark on its purple skin after it became visible.  
He brought his sword up when a similar weapon materialized in the Galra’s big hand and cut his violet try at his throat short, his muscles ached from the swing and he grunted when he managed to bring his own weapon up and put some distance between himself and the soldier. Careful not to leave his position with Lance behind his back, Keith took another step forward and swung his sword, then dropped down low to kick at the Galra’s feet. He let out a quiet snort when the soldier lost its balance and hit the ground with a loud crash, seeming lost for a moment.  
Using that to his advantage, Keith dropped down next to its tall form, his knees hurting from being crashed on the ground, and he used his right fist to deliver a phoenix eye punch to the soldiers temple with minimal force, and knocked him unconscious with it.  
He stood back up again, holding his hand out to the prince who was looking at him with quiet amazement (Keith was too focused on bringing the prince to his mother and being around them to figure out why knocking a Galra on their ass would impress Lance in any way) and pushed down the warm feeling in his chest when Lance put his hand in Keith’s, interwinding their fingers and his natural warmth sipping through Keith’s dark glove and hitting his skin. “Let’s go.” 

Keith saw out of the corner of his eye that some of the royal’s guards were slowly advancing towards Haggar and her small army of Galra and tried to pay attention to both, her and her shenanigans and the small distance they still had to run.  
He let out an enormous breath he didn’t know he was holding when they stopped in front of the queen, the summer courts princess and Shiro. 

“Keith, have you seen king Alfor or Coran anywhere?” Shiro asked and turned to him, the white fluff of his hair whipping up and down with the movement.  
Keith shook his head no and turned his head to look over the crowd. All he could see from their position were the panicking fae, Galra and other soldiers and Haggar. The screams of the fae mixed with Haggar’s unidentifiable screeching and Keith’s ears twitched when he looked at his brother again.  
Shiro grunted deeply and frowned.  
The queen had a frown on her beautiful face as well as she met Keith’s gaze with her blue eyes, widening them in obvious worry. “Lance, are you okay?”  
“Mom!” Keith immediately missed Lance’s warmth as the prince let go of his hand to hurry to his mother. “I’m fine, I’m fine!”

The queen put her hands on Lance’s cheeks, pulled his head down and kissed his forehead. When she pulled back again, she looked at her son with so much love that both Keith and Shiro looked away for a second.  
“Keith,” she said and let her hands fall to her sides again where they balled into small fists. “You have to go and take my son with you. I cannot bear the thought of him being here, and possibly being hurt or worse.”  
Before Keith had a chance to answer, Shiro whipped his head around. “Your Majesty—”  
“Shiro.” The queen looked up at him, determination in her blue eyes and a frown prominent on her face. “You should take Allura and escape, too. I’m convinced that Alfor doesn’t want his darling daughter around this mess either.”

“Your Majesty.” Shiro nodded once.  
Lance looked at his mother with big eyes, his mouth opening and closing a few times, searching for the right words. “I can’t just leave when everyone is in danger!” 

“You can and you will,” the queen said, and straightened her back. Keith could finally make out king Alfors form over her shoulder and watched for a second how he approached Haggar with Coran closely following behind. “I understand that you don’t feel well with leaving everyone behind, but this is something that I beg you to do.” 

“Mom—” 

The queen put out her hand in front of her, magic sizzling through the air around them and sending a wave of comfort through Keith’s veins and his whole being. They all watched, and Allura bit her lower lip, as a portal opened up in front of them. The queen turned around, slowly but determinedly walking into the direction of Alfor, Coran and Haggar. “Go. Now.”  
She turned around again after a few steps, smiling. “I love you, son. Never forget that.” 

And then she was gone, disappearing into the crowd of still panicking fae and fighting ones around them.  
Shiro looked at Keith and wrapped his robotic hand around Allura’s princess. “I don’t know where this portal is gonna take us, but the princess and I will go first. That way I can make sure that we aren’t ending up in Galra territory.”  
“Okay.” Keith nodded and put Lance in between himself and the glowing portal. “We’ll be right behind you guys.”  
His brother looked at the princess, and together they stepped through the blue magic of the portal, disappearing and leaving a wave of magic behind that blew through Keith and Lance’s hair like a warm summer breeze.  
They were both quiet, ignoring the chaos around them as best as they could, as they waited a few tense moments. When neither Shiro, nor Allura were coming back out of the portal, Keith took a deep breath.  
And just as he was about to grab Lance’s hand again, a loud bang rang out from behind them. It shot through the loud screams like a knife went through butter and Keith didn’t realize what was happening, as Lance suddenly put his hands on Keith’s chest and pushed him backwards. He stumbled, watching in quiet horror as something – a bullet, he registered one second later – pierced the prince’s blue shirt and then sunk itself in his chest, a few centimeters above his hearts location.  
“Lance!” he cried out, catching the brown haired boy in his arms as he wobbled on his feet and throwing an angry glare in the direction the bullet came from. He was glad to see that whoever fired the bullet was being taken care of by Coran, lying facedown in the dirt. Keith looked back down at the prince, dully noticing how the color started to leave not only his cheek but his whole face. “Lance, can you hear me?” 

A quiet grown was his only answer and Keith nearly screamed in joy when Lance opened his eyes a little bit. “Heh..,” the prince mumbled, the ghostly pale color of his face looking scarier than anything Keith had ever seen in his whole life. “You finally called me by my name.”  
“Don’t close your eyes,” Keith said to him and his body acted as if it was on autopilot. He was through the portal and he only realized faintly that the portal had let them to the human realm. Standing in the backyard of a house that belonged to some of the prince’s friends were some other figures, though in the moment he was too focused on Lance to recognize any of them. “.. Lance? Lance! Lance!” 

 

As he was sitting next to the bed Krolia had carried Lance into, Keith realized that everything that happened after stepping through the portal was kind of a blurr to him. Everything, including the way Allura had cried out when she saw all of the blood on Lance’s shirt, how she cried into Shiro’s shirt, how Matt and his sister Pidge went pale like a sheet of paper, how Lance’s friend Hunk stumbled and had to sit down. And how Krolia had taken the young prince out of her son’s arms and cared for his wound.  
Now that he was sitting down, Keith recognized where they actually were. It was a big two story house in the human realm, Krolia had bought it a while ago with the help of some of the Blade members. The Blade was an organization that worked against the Galra, even though all members were at least half, in not full, Galra themselves.  
Pidge, Matt’s younger pixie sister, lived here twelve months of the year, finding little interest in the politics of the fae and everything else going on in the inhuman realm. Hunk was a nice fae from the autumn court and one of Lance’s few friends. He had started living here, Keith remembered, after some fae of the autumn court had began showing extremely rude behavior towards him when he started dating a shapeshifting fae.  
Looking down at his hands, Keith could still see Lance’s blood on them, even after he had washed them for fifteen long minutes in the bathroom earlier. He just couldn’t get the mental image of Lance going paler and paler out of his head.  
He listened as the door behind him was pulled open and closed softly. Quiet footsteps could be heard as someone came closer and when the person put their hand on Keith’s shoulder, he instantly knew it was his mother.  
“He’s going to be fine,” she said after a few moment and squeezed his shoulder. “If Lance is one thing, then it’s being a fighter. It would take a lot more than a bullet to his chest to take this boy down.” 

Even if he didn’t voice his thoughts, he knew that it was true. Lance had always been a strong boy, though he rarely showed it to anyone and overplayed it with jokes and extremely weird pick up lines.  
“The bullet,” Keith said quietly, balling his hand into a fist and swallowing hard before looking at Lance’s quiet figure again, “wasn’t meant for him.”  
“What do you mean?” 

“He pushed me out of the way before I could identify the loud bang as a gun shot,” Keith explained and paused to take a deep breath. “It’s my damn job to protect him with my life, and when it comes down to it, he takes the hit for me.”

“Oh Keith,” Krolia said and squeezed his shoulder again. She didn’t say anything else but she didn’t have to. She just stayed with him in the room; watching over him as he watched over Lance. The rest of the house was quiet, the other’s were in shock from seeing Lance hurt that badly. 

Something was missing, Keith realized and immediately knew what it was. It was not only the prince’s consciousness, but also the effect his presence and his words had on other people. He was like the glue that kept everything from falling apart. Lance had a way of putting other people gently in their place, and Keith guessed that that was one of the reasons why he was so attracted to the crown prince in the first place.  
And in this night, Keith started to understand completely why some people fear silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, THAT happened.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter of this trainwreck. the next chapter should be uploaded in a few days


End file.
